Memoirs of a survivor of Yeshivas Bialystok in Poland --
HaRav Binyomin Grodke

Part III

In the first part, HaRav Grodke discussed his early years
briefly and then went on to describe his years in yeshiva. He
entered the Novardok yeshiva of Bialystok at the age of 16 in
1936, and was able to learn there for three years before the
War broke out in Elul, 5639 (1939). He discussed the
Yomim Noraim that year and what it was like to learn
and live with the clouds of war hanging low. Many yeshivas
from Poland and Russia went to Vilna and Lithuania in the
hope that it would be independent of both Germany and Russia.
A week before Pesach 5700 (1940) Rav Grodke arrived in Birzh
with the yeshiva and the rosh yeshiva HaRav Yaffen and the
mashgichim HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz and HaRav Nissen
Patchinsky. However soon Russia took over Lithuania.

The Russians sent all the foreign citizens away from the
European front and to Siberia. Though life was very harsh in
Siberia, the Russians did not engage in mass murder. The
yeshiva bochurim had to work very hard, but they
struggled to keep whatever they could. HaRav Grodke managed
to save three pairs of tefillin, once, when the
jailers went through everyone's belongings.

In the Image of Man

Three months of harsh, backbreaking labor passed in
Krasnoyarsk, but boruch Hashem we maintained our
dignity and scrupulously guarded the mishmeres
hakodesh.

Until Elul, we worked in Camp 1 as two brigades of yeshiva
students from Poland who were exiled for declining Russian-
Communist citizenship. The Germans ym'sh penetrated
deep into Russia; by the end of 1941, the Germans were
already at the gates of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).

Russia was forced to seek aid from America and England, who
had signed the Atlantic agreement against offensive attacks,
and promised freedom in order to win their favor. The
Communists, who were by nature very far from promises of
freedom, were forced to reach an agreement with the leaders
of the Polish government in exile. All Polish citizens in
Siberia would stop working in the labor camps and be freed
first to the kolkhozes of Kazakhstan and then to the
Polish army to fight the Germans.

During Elul, the yeshiva students started being released from
the work camps because they were citizens of (conquered)
Poland. The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel and a number of
talmidim were freed first. They went to the city of
Merke through Novosibirsk, where they obtained a sefer
Torah and some sifrei kodesh. The Yomim
Noraim found them in Merke and that's where they
davened.

We were transferred to Camp 7 where we continued working as
usual but the conditions were much better than at Camp 1.

It was Elul and we were agitated about how the Yomim
Noraim would pass in Siberia (as a shonoh sherosho
techiloh . . .) We were obviously not zoche to
hear a shofar.

HaRav Yitzchok Orlansky zt'l, who was in Siberia, was
freed during Elul and on his way to the kolkhoz "Barnhil" he
searched in the marketplaces and found a head of a ram in the
depths of the garbage. He managed to scratch out the center
of the bone and make a shofar out of it and even blew
it on that bitter Rosh Hashonoh, of the year "tosheiv
enosh ad dako."

Special Treatment

On Yom Kippur we received special treatment by the overseer.
He did not draw his rifle and told us that he considered us
intellectuals. We all stood behind a bundle of wood and
davened and he did not get angry or scream at us. He
merely wanted us to move the wood a little and then wrote in
his journal that the prisoners cleaned the forest today.

It was hashgochas Hashem that we were able to stand
for hours in tefilloh without any disturbance, like
sons confessing to their Creator and begging for mercy. We
saw much chasdei Hashem in the darkness, hail and
hunger.

Indeed, we are living proof that Hashem's Hashgocho
shines even in the dark and gloom. "Ki cheilek Hashem amo,
Yisroel chevel nachaloso. Yimtzo'eihu be'eretz midbar uvesohu
yelleil yeshimon; yesovevenhu yevoneneihu yitzrenhu ki'eshon
eino, Because Hashem's portion is His nation and Yisroel
is the rope of His plot. He found him in desert land, in
wailing emptiness; He surrounded him, He built him, He
guarded him like the pupil of His eye" (Devorim
32:9).

From Siberia to Bolshevik Kazakhstan

Many people are amazed and ask us how we were able to remain
staunch in emunah and shemiras hamitzvos and
guard our souls through the difficult trials of exile in
heretical Communist Russia, the Siberian labor camps and then
among the Kazakhs in the Kazakhstan deserts and other far-
flung places in Russia. The answer is the avodas
hamussar that we learned in Yeshivas Novardok and the
avodoh in middas habitochon and yiras
Hashem.

I remember that in Bialystok we learned to: "Increase the
yir'oh and decrease the nisoyon!" If we work on
increasing fear of Heaven, this will decrease the trials of
faith and the temptation of the evil inclination. Indeed, we
proved that the more we worked on increasing yiras
Hashem, the more the nisyonos decreased, as well
as the effort to overcome nisyonos.

One of the talmidim, HaRav Shlomo Naftali Hertz
Semiatitzky (Drogozhiner) author of Ner Leyitzhor, was
one of those who encouraged and strengthened us, as well as
HaRav Kehos Barak zt'l, who was later mashgiach
ruchani of Beis Yosef in Brooklyn.

One of the main words of chizuk was the answer to the
question of Yeshayohu (40:27), "Lomo somar Yaakov usedaber
Yisroel, nisteroh derochai meiHashem? Why should Yaakov
say and Yisroel speak: `My ways are hidden from Hashem?' "
The answer the Novi gave was, ". . . Elokei olom Hashem
borei ketzovos ho'oretz lo yi'af velo yiga, ein cheiker
letevunoso! Hashem is the G- d of the world Who created
edges to the earth He does not get tired or weary; there is
no plumbing the depth of His understanding."

Even though Hakodosh Boruch Hu is unlimited and
unbounded, He created "edges to the earth" with boundaries,
and there is "no plumbing the depth of His understanding."
Because the puny human mind cannot understand Hashem's deep
understanding when He brings us to a land of harsh decrees
and slavery, but there will soon be a boundary and end to the
slavery. (See the droshos of HaRav Hertz Semiatitzki,
Ner Leyitzhor)

Freedom

We celebrated chag simchoseinu, Succos, in the forced
labor camps under the natzalniks' and stroloks'
oppression. Nevertheless, we were happy and full of hope that
the time was ripe for freedom from the harsh labor in a
desolate land. Indeed, the mercy of Heaven does not end and
the hour did arrive.

Despite the tremendous difficulties in the camps and the back-
breaking labor, this period of our lives is a shining chapter
of observing Torah and mitzvos with tremendous mesiras
nefesh. Anyone who never saw a Siberian labor camp cannot
understand this. The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel
Mowshowitz zt'l wrote, "The weakest students stood
strong in the nisyonos even more so than other bnei
Torah. Because they absorbed mussar into their
very essence -- in yeshiva."

After Simchas Torah 5602-1942, we were freed as Polish
citizens. We made a small party in the camp. We were very
happy and thanked Hashem for freeing us from the prison labor
camps.

We traveled a one week's journey from Novosibirsk to the
Bolshevik kolkhoz, arriving in the warm summer areas
of Russia, the Kazakhstan settlements in the Merke area near
Zambyl.

Kazakhstan

It is now appropriate to describe the kolkhozes in
Kazakhstan and the Kazakhs. The Kazakhs, mainly Muslim Turks,
were independent farmers and shepherds before the Communist
revolution and were extremely wealthy. After the Communist
revolution (by 1920), their land was owned by the government
and they were just considered government employees. They were
forced to give the Communists a portion of their produce,
power over their property and a quota of cattle and sheep.

The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz and a number of
his students came to Kazakhstan during the bad days and did
agricultural work in the kolkhoz in Merke-Zambyl.

Kazakhstan is a republic in southwest Asian USSR, and it
extends from the Ural Mountains and Siberia in the North
until the Tien Shan mountains in the south, and from the
Caspian Sea in the west until the border of China in the east
(including a wide strip of sand deserts in south Kazakhstan,
the largest of which was the Kiezel Kum desert).

Kazakhstan has an abundance of copper, iron, coal, phosphate
and various metals, gold and silver mines; the seas contained
various industrial salts, and there is oil around the Caspian
Sea shores.

During World War II, many industrial factories, which
produced machinery and vehicles, moved to Kazakhstan. The
main work on the kolkhozes however, was agricultural
work.

The climate was extremely dry and the difference between
summer and winter was most extreme, with winter temperature
reaching 45 degrees below zero and the snow and ice piling
five meters high or more.

The Kazakhstan land was very interesting and varied. Low
plains lay next to high plateaus. On the east and southeast,
high ranges and mountains rose majestically, while the lowest
area in the USSR lay on the west -- the Kragian hollow on the
east of the sea, which is 132 meters below sea level.

Most of Kazakhstan is desert. Extensive cattle raising
developed, due to the aridity. The Communists, however,
carefully supervised the animal count and agricultural
produce and instead of sending food to the starving Siberian
plains, they exported choice food abroad.

The Kolkhoz

A kolkhoz was supposed to be a joint settlement in
which the farmers were all partners. The land did not belong
to any private person; everything was shared. Calculations
were made based on the work done, how many days of work, etc.
and the profits were divided among the "partners."

Everything depended on the quality and quantity of the
produce -- if it was successful, the income grew, and if it
was a bad crop, the income diminished. The same applied to
other profits.

The kolkhoz secretary used to write down how many work
days each person had on his account. A person could work all
week and be credited with only one day's work or one day
could be considered a few, depending on the quality of the
work.

It seemed, officially, that the wheat produce belonged to the
partners, the farmers. However, they were required to give
the lion's share to the government as "payment" for the
ground, seeds, machines, plows, harvesting and threshing
machine ("combine"), horses, cows, etc. After paying for all
the expenses, the rest of the wheat was distributed to the
farmers to grind in the government mill. Only then could they
bake their bread.

If the crop was bad, which happened every year in Siberian
areas, there was barely anything left for the farmer himself.
He did have permission to use a small plot of land to
cultivate a small garden where he grew potatoes, some
carrots, some onions and a little garlic. In the summer, he
was also able to plant cucumbers and cabbage, but was
forbidden to plant wheat and corn. The farmer had to depend
on the kolkhoz for flour, in order to force everyone
to work in the kolkhoz.

Every farmer had permission to raise one cow, a dog and a few
lambs. If a calf or any young one was born, the farmer had to
raise it and then give it to the kolkhoz or
government. Out of the little milk the cow produced -- two,
sometimes four, cups -- ninety percent belonged to the
government. The farmer himself obtained food from the
kolkhoz, but there was nothing for the animals. So, as
any dairy farmer knows, if a cow doesn't eat it doesn't
produce milk.

The farmers did not own chickens or roosters and they fed
their dog or cat a bit of the potato that the farmer himself
really needed. The farmer only received bread as a salary for
his work days. He mixed the little flour he received with
some cooked potatoes and that was the daily fare for him and
his animals.

When we arrived in Boshevik, we worked the ground in the
desert fields and received a portion of food (rice and
vegetables) as a salary. When Shabbos came however, we hid in
the mountains and did not come to work. The Kazakh woman
overseer said, "If you work well during the rest of the week,
you can get food on Shabbos also." (We didn't come to take
the food on Shabbos in front of everyone.)

Once, the Kazakh natzalnik came riding on a horse and
told the overseer not to give us food on days that we don't
work. However Hashem helped us and she said to us, "Children,
come, before they return from work." Thus we were spared
working on Shabbos kodesh and even received a humble
portion of food.

The hunger and lack of bread affected us adversely and I
contracted the terrible typhus disease. Only few are
zoche to completely recover from this difficult
disease. I layed on straw on the hospital's floor, burning
with fever and hallucinating. The mashgiach, the
tzaddik HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l walked a
distance of seven kilometers through the Kazakhstan deserts
to visit me through the hospital window.

When Hashem helped me overcome the disease, he was the first
to pass expensive pieces of sugar through the window to help
me recover. Blessed is Hashem Who did not leave me, and I
left the hospital in peace.

Victims of Hunger and Suffering of
Plagues

HaRav Pinchos Menachem Malach (in the sefer, Lev
HaAri), who was close to the mashgiach in Merke,
described the hunger and diseases as follows: The first year
we lived in Merke, we worked in the kolkhoz where
terrible hunger reigned. (We had not yet begun receiving care
packages.)

As a result, a plague of harsh diseases erupted. During one
winter, out of a room of ten bochurim, half were
niftar and only five remained.

The intense hunger is difficult to describe. We used to eat
any kind of vegetable or fruit that we found, even if it was
rotten and moldy. This obviously caused more diseases.

The first winter of 5702 (1942), I [Reb Pinchos Menachem]
also got sick. Reb Moshe Yunver (Goren) took me to the
hospital where I lay for a total of ten weeks, suffering from
pneumonia. I could not move a limb or roll over, and I did
not recognize anyone. Boruch Hashem, after six weeks
my condition improved somewhat. There was a bochur
from Yeshivas Mir, Yitzchok Brezer, who lay next to me and
when he was released from the hospital he brought me milk
every day. To our sorrow however, he got sick again and was
niftar (z'l).

The terrible suffering in the work camps weakened the
students' bodies and lowered their resistance to the diseases
that plagued the camps. In that winter of 5702 (1942), the
first one to pass away was Nosson Bialer, a dear, beloved
bochur, a talmid of Yeshivas Bialystok. He was
only sixteen.

The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel, who eulogized him amidst
crying and sighing, cried out, "How will I go up to my father
and the boy is not with us?" Then the talmid Meir
Kanishner, who had tried to obtain the sefer Torah in
the city Novosibirsk, was niftar. In two consecutive
days, three of our friends died on us, Reb Sinai Valkvisker
z'l, Reb Avrohom Pietrkover and Reb Yaakov Kalishner
z'l.

Two brothers from Valkavisk passed away -- Avrohom Yosef and
his younger brother Chaim. The two were real tzadikim,
students of Yeshivas Bialystok. Yehi zichrom
boruch.

The filth was terrible. Because it was impossible to change
clothing and wash, a plague of lice broke out, which caused
harsh and dangerous diseases. There were some robust men and
talmidim who went to the streams that flowed from high
mountains when the snow melted, and they washed themselves in
the frigid waters.

From 5701 (1941) to 5706 (1946), we not only suffered from
hunger, but also from the Communist government which
conscripted men to the front lines of the war and to fix the
train tracks. There, it was extremely dangerous.

The tragedies that befell us could have plunged us into the
depths of despair and destruction, if not for the powerful
influence of the mashgiach HaRav Yisroel, who was our
anchor of salvation. He succeeded in strengthening our hearts
and our bitochon in Hashem, the Eternal Rock.

The Mashgiach, HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l

The yahrtzeit of HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l,
who was a true ish tzaddik tomim, is 5 Menachem Av. He
is buried is Har Hamenuchos in Yerushalayim next to
the Alter of Novardok zt'l. We dedicate a few words to
his memory and his extraordinary deeds.

The Mashgiach's Personality

In Lev HaAri, the talmidim describe the exalted
personality of Morenu the mashgiach HaRav
Yisroel zt'l.

Rev Pinchos M. Malach said, "I was close to the
mashgiach HaRav Yisroel zt'l, and I was
zoche to serve him. He spoke with me a lot and
strengthened my bitochon in Hashem yisborach .
. . I saw how he suffered difficult blows and pain, and in
spite of everything, his face radiated happiness and his
joyful words lifted everyone's spirits. He had menuchas
hanefesh, serenity and confidence.

"He could heal another person's sorrow with his words. Even
mentioning the name `Reb Yisroel' was enough to strengthen
and encourage everyone. I saw him on a bitterly cold day, his
feet wrapped in worn-out clothing, coming from a great
distance away. He had gone to the hospital to visit the sick
and bring them some milk and bread to revive their souls. His
main concern was for others -- the bochurim -- and we
never saw him get angry."

An Amazing Story

Reb Pinchos Michoel continued relating, "There was a man of
German extraction who lived near our beis hamedrash in
Merke, who was a sonei Yisroel. He was extremely angry
that the beis medrash existed. What did he do? He got
drunk and started to throw stones into the window of the
beis medrash. When one of the talmidim, Reb
Simcha Radiner (who passed away in Bei, France), tried to
stop him, the vulgar German bashed him with a bottle, opening
a wound in his head. Just then, HaRav Yisroel was leaving the
beis medrash. He saw the incident and said, `You'll
see, the end of this rosho will come.'

"The wound was treated, and boruch Hashem, the
bochur recovered. The tzaddik's words were
completely fulfilled.

"A few days later, the German went to the nearby train
station and shoved himself into the car. The ticket-taker
came and pushed him off. The German fell onto the train
tracks, the train moved and he was cut into two under its
wheels. We saw with our eyes the power of the tzaddik,
HaRav Yisroel zt'l."

The Bnei Hachaburoh Remember

Rav Moshe Turner zt'l spoke at the yahrtzeit of
morenu the mashgiachzt'l in 5751. "In
Merke, we divided one masechto (maseches
Menochos) into chapters, due to the lack of
seforim. After much effort, we arranged a place for
tefilloh and learning. Who was our pillar, who
strengthened us so we didn't break? It was HaRav Yisroel
Mowshowitz zt'l. We can testify that Reb Yisroel did
not change. His gadlus and tzidkus in Bialystok
remained unchanged in Merke. He was a man of Torah every step
of the way. We saw him when he distributed the care packages
according to halocho without any personal bias. He was
on the elevated level of a true sonei botza."

Reb Avrohom Yitzchok Linzberg told the following story.
"Robbers broke into our apartment because they knew we had
care packages, so there was something to steal. It was a
miracle that it happened at the beginning of the night and
not in the middle. Terrible cries and wails, which could be
heard from one end of the city to the other, pierced the
night. The only one of us who was not frightened was Reb
Yisroel. He remained his usual quiet and calm, engrossed in
thoughts and tefilloh; his tremendous zchus
definitely saved all of us. The robbers shot and made noise
until they finished all their bullets and left. The next day,
the police arrived and declared that they had never seen such
a robbery, with the walls of the house covered with bullet
holes. We were not only scared to sleep in the house, but
even feared going near it and we moved someplace else. Reb
Yisroel, however, was not scared and he remained in that
house alone and slept there as usual."

On another occasion, Reb Moshe Turner added his memories of
HaRav Yisroel zt'l. "I was in Bialystok for a long
time and did not appreciate his noble strength because he was
a modest person. His greatness and glorious character traits
were especially apparent in Merke. I was amazed and told
myself, `How did he succeed in hiding his noble character
traits and greatness until now?' Behold a vessel that is
overflowing must let out some of its content. However, this
was also an expression of his greatness -- the fact that he
was able to hide it."

Reb Abba Burshtein of Bnei Brak spoke about Reb Yisroel's
gadlus. "In Yeshivas Bialystok, Reb Yisroel did not
want to transmit mussar and his'orerus in
public. (The mashgiach HaRav Nissen Patchinsky
Hy'dzt'l gave the shmuessen.) But when
he spoke with bochurim individually, he was not
silent; he completely dissected the bochur's middos
and actions. His moving tefillos as baal
tefilloh on the Yomim Noraim, however, he was
unable to hide from the public.

"When I was in the Bolshevik kolkhoz as well, we
gathered in Merke-Zambyl for the Yomim Noraim to hear
Reb Yisroel's tefillos.

He was a man of halocho, an expert in all
halochos of Shulchan Oruch, and was able to
rule in halocho anywhere. When we were in the forced
labor camps, Reb Yisroel worked extra in the arduous forests
for the weak students who were unable to fill their quota.
HaRav Yaakov Galinsky described how he once obtained some
extra food and brought it to Reb Yisroel, but he refused to
take it.

Reb Moshe Turner in Lev HaAri concludes, "`Zechor
yemos olom binu shenos dor vodor, Remember the days gone
by, understand the years of each generation.'" If we want to
understand our generation, we have to understand the past
generations. Reb Yisroel zt'l was our model in the
forced labor camps. After we left and were still suffering in
the Red Exile, he was the one who encouraged, supported,
strengthened and forged our spirits. Tehei nishmoso
tzeruro bitzror hachaim."